Someone's hand is in my hair.

It's an oddly nostalgic sensation. When weather gets bad, especially rain, sometimes all you can do is huddle up close to everyone you even kind of trust and hope that the collective pile of body heat will stop you from dying of cold through the night. In the mornings after, sometimes you get all sorts of body parts flopped over your head or your face or your everything else… it's usually not a super great time, but it's better than freezing to death.

This is different. There's no uncomfortable feeling of contact with an acquaintance. This is careful, deliberate, soft and loving. Fingers run through my hair slowly, massaging against my scalp and bringing a pleasant comfort to my now-ending rest. Of course, I can tell who it is immediately. I will never forget a soul this bright and warm.

"Hi, Lyn," I mumble groggily, opening my eyes.

My mother has my head in her lap, grinning that goofy grin of hers as she stares down at me. If the proximity of my Revenants and Penelope are any indication, we're still in the immortality research lab. To my surprise, however, Rowan is also here.

"Good morning, kiddo," Lyn greets softly.

"M'not a kiddo," I grumble. "I'm a goddess. Maybe."

"Of course you are, honey," Lyn answers agreeably, returning to stroking my hair.

I glance around the room, trying in vain to figure out how long I've been unconscious without being able to see the sky. I catch Rowan's eye, and he gives me a nod and smile of greeting while Vitamin laughs on his shoulders, enjoying a piggyback ride. I wave at them both, but decline to get up since I am exhausted and also incredibly comfortable.

"What are you two doing here?" I ask.

"We're here looking for you, you ridiculous dork," Lyn answers, flicking my nose. "You ran off by yourself and we were terrified you were dead!"

"Oh," I blink. "Right. Sorry, it's been a rough few days."

She leans over and wraps her arms around me, squeezing me tight.

"I know," she says. "I'm glad you're safe."

I hug her back, and when she leans back away from me I start to stand up. My body is incredibly sore, so it takes quite a bit of stretching before I really feel awake. Rowan is listening intently to Penelope and Theodora as they exchange heated nerd talk, Margarette backing up Theodora on almost every point. Vitamin just seems happy to be included, mostly because Rowan is doing an impeccable job of not letting how much he's freaked out by having a zombie on his shoulders show on his face. I'm a little disappointed that he has a problem with Vitamin, but I'm definitely happy that he's not letting it impact her day.

“So,” Lyn starts, strutting up to me and resting her elbow on my head, “are you going to tell me why you suddenly feel like you could eat half the city?"

I reach out a tentacle and poke her in the soul, causing her to yelp and jump off of me.

"I probably could, if everybody got close enough. Do I really feel that dangerous?"

"Honey, if you weren't mine I'd probably turn and run the other way the moment I could feel you," Lyn answers bluntly. "Honestly, you're not as strong as a lot of people I've been close to, but there's something about you that just oozes danger. What have you been doing this whole time? Your friend mentioned the forest?"

Penelope glances my way for a brief moment.

"Yes, hello Penelope, you are my friend," I taunt her again. She ignores me. "But yeah, I was in the forest. I made a cute little zombie army, ate over a hundred souls, collected some eggs, and hopefully sold some high quality chitin. You know, stress relief I guess."

"Holy shit," Lyn responds, blinking in surprise. "That’s where you went alone? You're quite the little powerhouse now, huh? Well, I'm glad you're safe."

"Speaking of safe," I say, changing the subject, "where are all the kids? If you and Rowan are both here, who's protecting them?"

"Er… well, Rowan and I actually ran straight here when we heard you were back, so…"

Shit! I quickly glance around the room and grab my spear from the floor.

"Well, we gotta go then!" I insist, rushing to the stairs. "You realize I killed like six gang members, right? The rest of them are going to come after us if they haven't already. The Drakens clearly aren't protecting us anymore, so we have to do it ourselves!"

Lyn and Rowan jolt in alarm before glancing at each other with embarrassed expressions.

"You're right," Lyn admits. "We haven't had any problems since you left, though. I mean, other than the panic of you being gone."

"I'll go home with Vita," Rowan volunteers, extracting Vitamin from his shoulders and sitting her on a nearby table. "You can go get that thing Penelope was asking for, Lyn."

Lyn nods and gives a thumbs-up while I raise an eyebrow.

"What thing?" I ask.

"I didn't stop working while you were unconscious," Penelope mutters, and considering how exhausted she looks it's easy to believe her. "I need more than raw magical talent if we're going to start growing bodies from nothing. I need your mother to pick me up some materials for a few helpful tools."

I nod. Makes sense to me, though I don't have the faintest idea what sort of tools Penelope is talking about. It mostly doesn't matter right now, though.

"Sounds good," I grunt. "Now let's go already, dad."

I quickly start heading up the stairs and Rowan jogs after me. Surprise, awkwardness, and confusion well up inside him for a while before he speaks up.

"Wait, so I am dad now?" he asks. "I thought you were mad at me about all the debt."

"Of course I am," I grumble. "But all your dumb shit doesn't mean you didn't do the good stuff, too. Compared to some of the other dads I know, you're pretty alright."

He smirks, ruffling the top of my head as he walks.

"We'll figure this all out," he promises. "The stuff with the Drakens, the stuff with Angelien, all of this. Your friend offered to set us up with a new place to live."

I stare at him with eyes wide, locking the door behind us out of habit.

"Penelope did? That's amazing!"

"She's an amazing young woman," Rowan answers, casually weaving a silence bubble around us. "You really lucked out befriending someone like that. Though she definitely has the whole megalomaniacal noble thing going on. Nobles tend to be raised fairly… ambitious."

I laugh at that.

"What tipped you off? My first hint was when she got legitimately disappointed at not being able to kill every single monster in the forest all by herself."

"Well, I had a few suspicions from how she acted around you back when you told her about your talent," Rowan sighs, "but the secret immortality research lab definitely clinched it for me."

"It's pretty cool, though, right? I mostly just like having a place where my Revenants won't get caught."

“About that…" Rowan says slowly, "did you really adopt one of your own undead?"

"Of course!" I answer defiantly. "Why shouldn't I? Adopting random monster children is what my parents taught me to do, after all."

He snorts, which slowly evolves into full laughter. When his chuckles are over, he reaches an arm over and squeezes me around the shoulder.

"Lyn and I love you, Vita," he says firmly. "You've been such a big help to us, but that's not why. It's just something she and I decided together. We would take in other people who had nothing, who had no one, and we would give them ourselves. You're taking that in somewhat of an odd direction, but we are incredibly proud of you for it."

I lean into his side hug, wrapping my own arm around his waist.

"I can tell you're kind of nervous around her, though," I bring up. "Vitamin, I mean."

He scratches the back of his head, frowning.

"Sorry," he answers bluntly. "It's not her, it's just… well, her body is dead. It feels like I'm touching a dead child. That's something I have already had far too much experience with to last a lifetime."

I shrug. That’s valid, I’ve brushed up with my fair share of corpses and I think I recall it being a bit less comfortable back before the whole necromancy thing kicked in. Now I rather like the sight and feel of dead flesh, but I shouldn’t expect anyone else to.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It doesn't really bother me, but I guess death is my whole thing. Learning to undo it feels weird to me, but I think I can still help a lot. So I will."

Slowly but surely, we make our way closer to our part of town. Houses get more and more dilapidated, people get more and more broken.

"Speaking of your whole thing," Rowan says, changing the subject, "I heard something about how your body produces its own mana?"

"Oh yeah, that," I mumble, scratching my cheek with mild embarrassment. "So, apparently there's some debate on whether I'm just a monster or if I'm a divine monster somehow. I guess it's a pretty big deal?"

"It is a big deal," Rowan agrees, "but more importantly, Vita, I don't want to hear you call yourself a monster."

"Dad, my soul is an eyeball with tentacles and I have constant urges to fucking eat people. Even if I'm physically human—"

"Vita, it's not about your body or your soul or any of that," Rowan insists, cutting me off. "It's about your perception."

He taps his forehead with a finger, looking at me intently.

"Perception is everything. People find whatever truths about themselves that they set out to look for, because everyone has a little bit of everything inside. The grandest saint has dark temptations. The cruelest torturer can still love his family. If you tell yourself you're a monster, those are the only parts of yourself that you will see. And if that's all you see, at some point you'll stop looking for anything else. So don’t forget where you come from, Vita. Don’t forget your kindness."

I grunt in acknowledgment, nodding my head slowly. I'm not totally sure I understand this power of positive thinking garbage, but I'll think about it.

"Anyway," Rowan continues, "I was wondering, since Penelope mentioned your casting is very safe but very low capacity, if you wanted to learn kynamancy?"

I blink at him in surprise. Learning from Rowan?

"I mean, yeah, sure! Also, what do you mean by low capacity?"

He chuckles.

"That's just what she said. But if that's true, kynamancy would be perfect for you. It's not a very good school of magic for offense, at least not until you get incredibly skilled at it. But some of its best tricks, at least in my opinion, require very low magical output. Besides, my understanding is that you have offense pretty well in hand with your natural talents."

That's true. Adding something tricky to my repertoire might be the best way to start with magic. I'm definitely interested in learning biomancy, but it seems redundant with Penelope and, more importantly, it's apparently a phenomenally difficult school of magic to understand.

"Yeah, that would be awesome actually!" I agree. "I'd love that. This still doesn't mean you're getting any of my money, th—"

I shut myself up, tensing as I feel an all-too-familiar soul enter my range. It's Capita, in all her ramshackle glory. The tri-talented bitch is much, much closer to our home than I'm comfortable with. And with her, she has a half-dozen goons as well.

"Something the matter?" Rowan asks.

"Yeah," I confirm, drawing my spear and wrapping tendrils around my limbs. "Trouble. I'm going on ahead."

I dash forward, legs pumping against the ground and kicking up dirt as I blast down an alleyway towards my enemies. I swore to destroy the Drakens in a moment of fury, but I do genuinely believe that it’s what I should do. Capita is the only other animancer I know, and while her knowledge could therefore be invaluable to getting Angelien and Penta back from the grave as non-slaves, I don’t trust the woman in the slightest. Not unless she’s a Revenant. The rest of the gang is small potatoes, especially if my family is getting moved… but maybe it will help out some other people to evict them anyway. Or maybe it’s just revenge. I guess we’ll see when they’re gone.

I tear around the corner, glaring furiously at my targets as they all turn to face me.

"Work of art!" Capita says excitedly. "Our quest takes us in search of you! 'Tis fortunate we have—"

"The last time I said this," I growl, cutting her off, "I made the mistake of not really meaning it. I assure you, this time this is your one and only warning."

I approach at a walking pace, ensuring my spear is at the ready.

"Fuck off or die," I demand.

Somewhat predictably, no one immediately fucks off. The various goons Capita brought draw weapons instead, mostly wooden knives or the occasional spear of their own. I don't slow my approach.

"You chase a bear from its den," Capita argues in her singsong way. "Her cubs sleep within, so you'd best—"

I get in range of her idiots and whip a tentacle into each one. In a single motion, they all fall to the ground dead. Capita is further back, unfortunately, and I doubt I can instantly kill her with a tendril anyway. I continue to approach, stepping over the bodies.

"I don't care how many of you have pissed on the walls, this is not your territory anymore," I inform her. "You’re too close to me and mine, and we all quit."

She has no response but surprise, her jaw open wide. I pull out a soul shard, pushing power into it to convert it to one of my leaching weapons. Placing it inside my spear head, I point the tip towards her heart, still walking forward. I want to get closer before she attacks, to try and end it in one blow. I probably don’t have to worry about her cognimancy, but her teleportation is a pain in the ass.

"You dropped your part of the deal the moment my sister died," I continue. "You're going to lament it when you work for me."

Her eyes narrow at that, power flowing through the pathways of her soul as she readies her talents to fight.

“Should I be added to your canvas, the wrath of a storm will descend upon you.”

I sneer, tentacles writhing with furious energy. The instant I think I’m close enough, I lunge at her.

Her teleportation talent activates, but this time I’m faster.